I Swear I Love You

“Matt you can’t do that!” Val was trying to tug on her boyfriend’s arm to get him to stop in his movements. “You’ll give them all heart attacks!”

“Why not?” He replied, shrugging her arm from his and continuing with what he was doing. “They’re on my lawn.”

A trio of yelps later announced that Matt had got his way as the sprinklers hidden in the grass all set off in unison, instantly waking up the bodies that had passed out there last night. Val flashed them all apologetic looks as each of them trudged back onto the deck, gratefully accepting the towels she handed to them after her boyfriend’s wake up call.

“You know you could have just poked us or something,” Brian grumbled, rubbing the towel across his hair. He slumped on one of the seats and groaned, discarding the towel in favour of holding his head. “Hey Val, do you have any Tylenol in the house? My head is killing me.”

“I’ll take some of that if it’s going,” Zacky added.

“Same for me,” Jimmy said, joining Zacky on the bench. He glanced wearily around when he noticed some of the group was missing. “Where’s Johnny and Jess?”

“Jess is sleeping on the couch,” Val replied, pressing water and Tylenol into each of their hands. “Johnny is upstairs with Lacey.” She caught Matt’s eye and smirked. “They had a long night.”

“Lacey? Isn’t that the girl he was on about at the meeting?”

“That’s the one.” She turned to look back at the open door where two yawning bodies stumbled through. “Looks like they heard you.”

Through half-open eyes Lacey finally got to meet with the other part of the band, waving while at the same time trying to fight back a yawn. “I’m Lacey, nice to meet you.” She tried to rub the sleepy feeling from her eyes and after managing it, realised the three of them were soaked to the bone. “Why are your clothes wet?”

“Matt decided to use the sprinklers this morning,” Jimmy answered darkly, shooting Matt a glare. “And not give us a warning beforehand.”

“This is why you need to choose where you pass out carefully,” Matt said cheerily. “Oh and Zack, do you mind checking on Jess in the front room? She should be waking up around now if she’s not already.”

“Yeah, I’ll check on her after I get into some dry clothes,” Zacky replied, tugging the towel tighter around his shaking frame. “You still have some of mine, right?”

“Yeah, Val put them in the drawers in the spare room.”

“Thanks.”

As he went to move inside Jimmy spoke up. “Zack if you want to go change I can go check on Jess for-”

“No,” Val interrupted, quickly ushering Zacky inside before he could stall any further. “Zacky can go do it; you and Brian are going to help me clear up the mess you left last night out here.”

“But-”

“No buts!” Val said firmly, staring down any protest he hoped to make. “You are helping me out and that’s final.”

“Oh yeah, I’ll give you a helping hand,” Jimmy grumbled, grabbing the nearest trash and throwing it in the closest bag. “I’ll give you a helping hand right up the-”

“What was that?” Val asked darkly, her eyes narrowing upon the drummer as he looked away.

“Nothing.”

The two clearly suffering males began the tedious task of shuffling around the deck picking up empty bottles and shoving them into bags Val brought out, keeping their mutterings to themselves so not to cause any more morning punishment to rain down upon them.

Of course as fate would play it, a different kind of punishment followed around ten minutes later in the form of their wide-eyed rhythm guitarist.

“It’s Jess, she’s-”

Everything in their hands was forgotten as all of them raced back inside, with Brian only taking an extra moment in order to grab Jess’ small bag from the chair. He pushed his way to the pale body draped across the couch, carefully tilting her head and noticing the thin sheen of sweat across her forehead. What she was experiencing now was the opposite of the hotel visit; while back then her blood sugar was too high, here it was too low. Sometimes he wondered how she could stand abiding by these fickle guidelines- but then again, it wasn’t like she had a choice.

“Jess?” He carefully shook her shoulder, breathing a sigh of relief as her eyes wearily opened to his. Her green eyes were glazed over from her body’s suffering, only just able to keep them open in order to look back weakly at him. “I need to test your blood sugar, okay?” She could only just about manage a nod before he pricked her finger and tested the blood, not sharing the wince that made its way through the others as he had done it a load of times before. Unfortunately most of the times the readings weren’t as bad as this- he dealt with her hypos before, but this was on the worse side of things.

“Val do you have any soda or something? Oh, and a straw.” She nodded and disappeared for a few moments while he murmured to Jess that everything was going to be alright. Once he got the drink he was after he angled the straw near Jess’ mouth, instructing her to drink. When she couldn’t bring herself to do the simple task he felt his heart drop- especially when he knew there was only one other thing he could do.

Slinging her bag across his shoulder he then lent in and gently lifted her up into his arms, ignoring the protests his friends made trying to persuade him in leaving her alone and instead call an ambulance.

They just had to trust him; it was better off this way.

He propped her back up against the side of the bath, making sure she wasn’t going to fall down as he turned his attention to the bag he had brought up with him, taking out a thin rectangular box. Inside was a last resort to lifting the worst of the hypo attacks diabetics suffered- a single shot of glucagon which would help bring her sugar levels back to normal- that is if he hadn’t left it too late to administer it.

Between the short time he had taken her up to the bathroom her eyes had slid shut for the most part, flickering briefly open as he murmured an apology before swiftly pushing the needle into her skin and pushing the shot into her system. He knew fully well how much these last-minute injections hurt since he had witness the week long bruises she had to endure after needing one, and always hoped he never would have to force this punishment upon her because of a condition she couldn’t help. However he was happier to give her a bruise and pain for a short time than lose her altogether.

A few minutes passed and he could soon tell that the shot was working, noting her eyes opening and soon blinking back at him along with the grimace that came from the painful area on her thigh where he had just injected her. Unfortunately that was the least of the side effects, and her moving swiftly to the toilet and expelling the contents of her stomach soon providing the reason why he brought her up to the bathroom before giving her it.

“I’m so sorry Jess,” he murmured, crouching beside her as her stomach heaved once again. He hated to see his friend suffer, but he was thankful she had decided against drinking last night, even when he tried to persuade her. If she had, he wouldn’t have been able to give her the one thing that probably saved her life just then.

Jess reached up for the handle and flushed the toilet, but kept her head positioned over the bowl just in case. She was well aware of these unfortunate effects of the drug, but she knew she just had to go along with it. “Don’t feel sorry…” She heaved once again but nothing came up, her stomach already emptied. “It’s not your fault; I should have watched myself more carefully.”

After making sure she wasn’t going to throw up again she shifted on the floor until her back was leaning against the toilet, her smile as weak as her voice as she looked up to the bodies peering in from the doorway. “I’m sorry… This isn’t really the nicest thing to wake up to.”

“You’ve got nothing to apologise for,” Val murmured, stepping into the bathroom and dropping to her knees in front of the frail female, passing her the soda she had brought to Brian earlier. “You can’t help it-” She gestured to Brian beside her and then Jimmy and Zack behind. “-unlike these guys. You should have heard them moaning about their hangovers this morning.”

“I’d rather have a hangover any day over this,” Jess chuckled, trying in vain to conceal another grimace as she felt the nauseous feeling rip across her stomach once again, only just about managing to turn in time to the toilet. She slumped her head upon her arms, breathing heavily. “Or at least be able to finish a sentence before throwing up.”

They could only offer sympathetic smiles as she turned back; knowing the smile she echoed was strained behind a true mask of pain and exhaustion.

“We’ll give you some space,” Val murmured, rubbing her on the arm before stepping back, ushering the others out of the doorway. “If you need anything, just give us a call, okay honey? Anything at all.”

As the others filed out Brian kept a steady vigil at Jess’ side, the pair of them sitting there in an uneasy silence. Once or twice their gazes briefly met only to suddenly avert to another direction, almost as if they were both ashamed at the situation they found themselves in. One of them was at least.

Unable to take the dead atmosphere any longer Brian finally decided to speak. “Did you have a good birthday then?”

The smile that touched her lips this time was genuine; unlike the one she had flashed the others out of reassurance earlier. “One of the best; although I have woken up to better.” She chuckled to herself. “Not that you are bad-looking or anything though Brian.”

It took him a while to work out what the joke was since it was way too early in his hangover to expect anything quicker, resulting in a late scowl in reaction and a playful swipe at her leg. “I am not bad-looking. I am simply fabulous.”

“You keep telling yourself that.”

“Yeah well…” Unable to find an appropriate insult he merely stuck his tongue out at her in a childish manner, soon causing the two of them to burst out into laughter. He pulled her next to him so that they were both leaning against the side of the tub, both suffering in the morning but for two entirely different reasons. Speaking seemed to be the only thing that took their minds off of the little reminders of this fact so they didn’t allow the silence to creep on them again.

“So where did Zack end up taking you yesterday?” Brian asked, glancing down at Jess who was currently resting her head on his shoulder. “You had us hanging here for an hour before you finally showed.”

“So you were the one ringing Zack’s phone all the time?” She sounded surprised. “Maybe I should have tried harder to make him answer it.”

“He purposely didn’t answer?”

“Yeah… he had just paid for the zoo admission so I just thought he didn’t want to be bugged.”

“That little shit…” He muttered. “I’ve wanted to go to the zoo for ages!”

Jess laughed at that. “You what?” She spluttered. “How old are you again?”

“Old enough to want to go to the zoo,” he replied casually, ending his point with a shrug. “I’ve never had the chance to go.”

“Well tell you what; when you get back off your tour I’ll take you there.”

He looked up, surprised. “Are you not going to come with us?”

“On tour?” She shook her head when he nodded, offering him a small smile out of consolation. “It’s probably a bad idea… don’t you think?” When he didn’t seem to get her point she sighed. “Look what just happened this morning Brian- would it really be smart if I went on tour with you? What if this happened then? Who says that next time it happens to me you are on stage, and no one is there to save me?” Her voice dropped. “The tour is yours to have fun- not to worry about me.”

“You know, the whole depressing vibe you are giving off doesn’t suit you,” Brian mused, stretching his arms above his hand before allowing them to settle around Jess once more, his head resting against hers as his eyes began to droop. “I much prefer the happier Jess.”

Sleep was quick to find the hungover guitarist and soon the bathroom was filled with his light snores. A faltering smile ghosted Jess’ lips as she closed her eyes alongside his, speaking softly so not to wake him. “I prefer the happier Jess too.”